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KHMER KROM NEWS

Monday, October 28, 2013

Transformation at the Cambodian Children's Fund

Beyond proud - overawed and inspired.

Back in 2007, during a regular tramp across the garbage dump of Steung
Meanchey, I came across a teen girl who had left school in Grade 4 and,
with few other options to survive, scavenged the waste for food and recyclables. Her name was Srey Mom.

Too old to return to school, her dream was to learn to work in the
garment industry or to train in hairdressing and make-up. We had a just
started a small hairdressing and garment vocational centre, so Mom and
her cousin left the horrors of the garbage dump forever and started on
the path to their dream. As you'd expect, they were just about
the happiest teens you could find. With their families cared for, 3
meals a day, learning their dream vocational and making life-long
friends. But something gnawed inside me. Seeing them so happy
and contented was wonderful... however I had an ongoing sense that
somehow I was failing them.

It took me 2 years to figure it
out. Their dreams were confined to their limited view of the world and,
most of all, their own belief in what they could achieve. When you work 7
days on a garbage dump, garment work appears as a dream. I wasn't
fulfilling their dreams as much as enabling them to remain within their
confines.

These teen girls had such inner strength from their
former lives, the compassion to raise younger siblings and so much
ambition. Most of all, they had the courage of lions.

So we
all met one afternoon and made a deal: give me 12 months of your life to
show you your potential. I promised to put them well out of their
comfort zones and, at the end of 12 months they could choose to return
to vocational training - or choose an altogether new path.

So
began CCF's Leadership Program. Each girl - 22 of them at that point -
went through an intense cycle of community & leadership programs,
including child care, early childhood development, nutrition, social
work, health care, gender rights, communications and public speaking. In
the evenings they studied English and computer classes and helped
launch our food programs. They became active mentors to nearly 100 young
teens. Nearly 3 years on, none have returned to full-time vocational
training.

And Mom. That's her in the 2nd photo, flying to
London this week, as one of BBC's "100 Women". She's speaking on women's
rights, debating gender issues with her peers and mapping a better life
for the next generation of girls - on national TV.

I still
can't take it all in. I'm so grateful to have been part of her journey,
to help Mom find her true self. I am in awe at what she has become -
Mom, the fearless, beautiful, generation-changer - and can only imagine
what she can do in her lifetime.